I’m obsessed with the sleep sacks. I first saw one a few years ago when visiting my French sister Morgan and her little boy Zachary. He was adorable in this zippy blanket thing that had a whale on it, I think. Adorable as only the French can do it. I filed that away even though I was nowhere near the baby phase of my life. Flash forward a few years and imagine my surprise and pleasure upon learning that sleep sacks were not just for French babies, though the French do them much cuter. Yay! My kids have been in sleep sacks ever since – that is until they reach about 18 months when it seems no longer necessary or practical (at least for my kids). So the older two no longer use sleep sacks but Kieran is going strong.
I was presented with a challenge this past week. We went out of town with friends (more on that in a future post) for a weekend. Our family would be sharing a room with one bed, so what to do for sleeping arrangements. We tossed around borrowing the family aerobed but nixed because it had already been reserved. Toys r us has these nifty toddler travel beds but they were too spendy and I was not crazy about buying something else that would get occasional use but mainly become something to store. The kids don’t have their own sleeping bags and while my husband could supply sleeping bags for our family plus some, nobody was in need of a -50 degrees bag. Josh mentioned something about how much Claire liked using his thermarest when we went camping last year and an idea was born.
Follow me for just a moment. I traveled Europe right after I graduated from college. One of the smart travel tips sent my way, bring a sort of sleep sack or sheet so that no matter where you stay, you don’t have to worry about the sheets. It proved to be very helpful. Ok, so combining the kid sleep sack, the thermarest and my European sleep sack…what do you get? The kid bed sleep sack. I’m sure I’m not the first person to do this. Regardless, I am pretty proud of myself. Sadly, our camera has decided to stop working so there will be no pictures of this post.
I made two sleep sacks and spent $11.00. That’s it. I could have made them for free but thought I would sweeten the deal for both kids with a panel of fabric (their choice) for decoration. Claire chose her new favorite, Ariel, the Little Mermaid. Conor chose Icky Mouse (Mickey Mouse). I used two queen size sheets (could have used a smaller sheet but we seem to have an excess of queen size around here). I folded the sheet in half and sewed a pocket for the thermarest to slide in so the kids weren’t sliding off in the middle of the night. Sewed up two and a half sides to create the sack, added the decorative panel and voila! Cheap sleep sack, traveling kid bed. I may go back and add a pocket for their pillows to slide into. I have a feeling Claire will refuse to use the pocket because she likes to sleep on a pillow pet and will want to see her. Conor will probably want what Claire wants simply to be like his sister. So, maybe I will save myself the time and skip the pocket.
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